Laughter, smiles, and the inevitable promises of support

It was a beaming but inscrutable Gordon Brown who stepped into the public gaze yesterday afternoon, emerging from a black SUV into the bright sun of a Glasgow sports stadium to meet contestants in the first annual UK School Games.

Ignoring feverish shouts of, "When will Tony Blair go?" from the press, the chancellor strode on to the running track at Scotstoun and chatted to a bemused group of young athletes, some of the 1,000 who will compete in the four-day event, the first of a series in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. Mr Brown laughed, he smiled, he shook hands; every animated gesture eliciting a clatter of camera shutters from the media massed in two metal pens behind him.

When he turned eventually to face the cameras the smile was still in place, unwieldy and impenetrable as ever. The words, when they came, were measured and emollient but enigmatic for all that. He was here to celebrate the School Games, he said, but he thought he should say something else.

"We are in the unique situation in our country where the prime minister has said, as he has said on a number of occasions, that he does not want to lead our party and our government into the next general election," Mr Brown said.

That raised questions, he added, but it was for the prime minister to make the decision - something he had stressed to Mr Blair yesterday. "I said also to him, and I make it clear again today, that I will support him in the decision he makes; that this cannot and should not be about private arrangements but what is in the best interests of our party, and most of all the best interests of our country, and I will support him in doing exactly that."

There was a pause.

"Tony Blair and I have worked together for 20 years and we have done so in difficult times as well as in very good times. We continue to work together because we share a determination, both of us, that we will advance and get down to the business of the Labour government, and doing our best by the people of the country."

Soon Mr Brown was done, disappearing into a neighbouring leisure centre. His aides had told organisers earlier that they did not want to have him followed around the sports halls - perhaps fearing a photo opportunity near a substitutes' bench or a victory rostrum.

Mr Brown then headed east to Edinburgh for private discussions with Labour MSPs at Holyrood. The meeting was pre-planned, one of a series between Labour MSPs and senior party figures. Last week they had planned to talk to him about bread-and-butter issues: the upcoming Holyrood elections; his ongoing support for devolution.

Duncan McNeil, the MSP chairing the meeting, said he hoped the chancellor and the prime minister's statements would now draw a line under the uncertainty and speculation.

If the party nationally has been dismayed at the events of the past few days, in Scotland it is fearful. Labour at Holyrood will face the electorate on May 3 next year with a flimsy majority and the SNP snapping at its heels. Some recent polls have put the SNP two points ahead of Labour for the first time since 2003. Mr McNeil had a message for those in the party who might not feel that yesterday's statements were the end of anything. "Please do not continue this speculation: You are doing a great deal of damage."